Exclusive: Insight TWI, Fraser team for “Sierra Leone”

Africa Investigates producer Insight TWI is teaming up with Nick Fraser of the BBC for a feature-length doc on a Sierra Leonean artist looking to stage an ambitious theatrical production in the West African country.

The film, titled Sierra Leone, centers on celebrated playwright Charlie Haffner and his model of community theater. The doc will follow his plans to stage a production intended to foster a sense of national identity within the West African country, still reeling from the 2014 Ebola outbreak.

Nick Fraser

Though the project is not backed by the BBC, Fraser – editor of the pubcaster’s ‘Storyville’ doc strand – has signed on to exec produce independently of the Beeb, and describes Sierra Leone as “fantastically bold.”

“That’s what animates me – the desire to see really earth-shaking stuff that changes my view about things, and I’m sure this will do,” he tells realscreen.

The project begins production next month, and Insight this week launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the remaining 25% of its budget. About US$550,000 has so far been raised through a number of private investors.

Insight was founded in 1991 by former BBC radio and TV reporter Ron McCullagh. The London-based producer specializes in current affairs docs with global impact, with credits including the Emmy- and BAFTA-winning account of Sierra Leone’s civil war, Cry Freetown (2000); as well as Africa’s Last Taboo (2011), confronting homosexuality in the continent; and the series Africa Investigates for Al Jazeera English.

The company’s latest undertaking will follow Haffner as he tries to stage an ambitious play in a country that no longer has a dedicated theater venue. The doc will find the artist trying to navigate questions regarding how to depict his country, his people and their history, and ultimately cast the play with Sierra Leonean protagonists – some of whom may portray themselves.

Insight TWI’s Jonathan Ossoff

“The country has been through so much displacement, so much war, that there isn’t as strong a sense of national identity as there could be, and he [wants to achieve this] by creating a unifying work of art or a piece of culture that everyone can relate to,” says Jonathan Ossoff, MD of Insight.

He adds that Sierra Leone presents a rare opportunity for the prodco – internationally recognized for its coverage of Africa – to tell a story that inspires, and doesn’t focus directly on conflict and strife.

“The idea is that the story we’re telling is about a Sierra Leonean telling a story. The narrative is an African one, the message is an African one,” says Ossoff. “If you ask someone on the street, and you say, ‘When I say Sierra Leone, what do you think of?’ they’re going to picture war, Ebola and poverty. And we’re going to show them a side of the country they didn’t even know existed.”

Executive producers on the doc include Fraser, Ossoff, McCullagh and Katy Barksdale. Long-time Insight presenter Sorious Samura is producing and Clive Patterson (The Battle for Africa, Living with Ebola) is directing. Daniel Platzman of rock band Imagine Dragons will score the doc.

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About The Author

Meagan Kashty is an associate editor of realscreen, an international print and online magazine that covers the non-fiction film and television industries. Meagan is an award-winning business journalist. Prior to joining the realscreen team, Meagan was online editor of Canadian Grocer, named Magazine of the Year at the 2015 Canadian Business Media Awards. She can be reached at mkashty@brunico.com, and you can follow her on Twitter @MegKashty